D is for Directories: A-Z Challenge 2020

My Theme

Family History Meets Local History - 

Sources and Stories from England & Scotland  

D is for DIRECTORIES   - They provide ideal background material for writing about the community and times  in which your ancestors were living - for example how many blacksmiths, bakers, carters and  shoemakers were listed?  If you are lucky, you might find an advertisement of your ancestor's  trade or business - a bonus to feature in any profile.

Generally they give little  more than a name, for individuals, possibly an  address and confirmation of a person's status or occupation.  Yet,  as with all archives, there is a fascination in discovering the name of your ancestor in a publication written in his lifetime and finding a  contemporary description of the town or village. 

In 1866  Rutherfurd's Southern Counties [Scotland] Directory of 1866  listed the shops and trades in my own village of Earlston in Berwickshire.    These numbered:

28 Farmers
10 Grocers/general merchants/spirit merchants  
4  Shoemakers  
7 Dressmakers/clothiers/drapers.
5 Innkeepers  at the Black Bull Inn, Commercial Inn, Newton's Hotel, Temperance Hotel, and White Swan Inn.
3 Carriers, Fleshers/Butchers, and Medical Practitioners, 
2 Bakers,  Blacksmiths, Cattle Dealers and Joiners.
1 Banker, Bookseller/Stationer/Printer,  Builder, Farrier, Joiner, Mole-catcher,  Painter, Saddler, Salter, Thatcher, Timber Merchant, Tinsmith, and Watchmaker.  

Lochhead's watchmaker & jeweller in Earlston.   Look at the right hand window for that unusual term "cyclealities".

Weatherly 's Newsagent, Post Office  and Printer on the High Street in Earlston for over 60 years. Take a closer look at that newspaper placard which refers  to Dr. Crippen - the  American doctor, hanged  23rd November 1910 in Pentonville Prison, London  for the murder of his wife Cora Henrietta Crippen.  He  was the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.  

Photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Group.   Like many such heritage groups it holds a substantial collection of vintage  postcards  of local shops and street scenes.

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A page in Mannex Directory of 1851  for Amounderness (the old name for the Fylde, Lancashire) lists my great great grandfather Henry Danson at Trap Farm, Carleton, his neighbour and brother-in-law John Bryning at Rington Farm  and under Poulton-le-Fylde Inns and Taverns,  three relations by marriage William Gaulter of the Golden Ball,  husband of  Mary Danson  and Cornelius Cardwell  of the Kings Arms, husband of Jane Danson, plus son-in-law watchmaker James Brownbill, married to Margaret Danson. James was  responsible in 1865 for the new clock in the tower of St. Chad's Church in Poulton . (photograph below)  

1851 Directory with entries relating to my extended Danson family highlighted.

 

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Some directories are online, but my findings came from personally consulting the publications at the relevant library and archive centre. You can also always request Look Ups.

 

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